Date read=01/21/09

Coming from an art school background I can really relate to this book. Reading it was like reliving some of my best moments in college. Hilarious. I recommend it to art students everywhere. ( )

I picked this up on a whim at Powell's because I liked the title (which doesn't really mean anything, by the way). It's got mixed reviews here on LT, but I don't really understand why. "The Cheese Monkeys" is about a freshman at an unnamed state university in the late 1950s: "Majoring in Art at the state university appealed to me because I have always hated Art, and I had a hunch if any school would treat the subject with the proper disdain, it would be one that was run by the government." He meets another art major, a funny but unbalanced girl named Himillsy, and maybe falls a little in love with her, but she's pretty crazy so you know that's never going to work out. The book pokes a lot of fun at the art world, and at the art worlds of provincial universities in particular. And then it turns into some twisted version of "The Dead Poets Society" when they take a class on Graphic Design taught by another possibly crazy person named Winter Sorbeck, who alternately tortures and teaches his students. The last twenty pages are the most perfect rendering that I have ever encountered of a terrible finals week experience, and I almost want to type the whole thing...okay, I'll type part of it:

The third day. You're under the rainbow and the spotlight of the Divine Tragic Absurd shines its black light everywhere and helps you grow like a mushroom. You sharpen a pencil and it's just the saddest thing since the Creation. You verge on weeping--in silent isolation--for five minutes. Then the point snaps against your work top and it puts you into fits of hysteria. Wipe your eyes and proceed. You foolishly take a break and emerge to street level. Mars. Make it to the Caf, to refuel, and you're seeing it for the first time because you realize everyone acts as if they have no idea you've been awake for over seventy-two hours, but they've known all along and can barely contain their horror and admiration. You are fortified and ashamed. You have three helpings of mashed potatoes (so easy to chew!) and a half a glass of Coke. You take an apple and a banana for later, leave them on your tray, and toss them into the garbage as you leave.
When you realize this, halfway back to the VA building, you find the nearest curb and sit. Eyes moist. Innocent fruit--they deserved better.
So alone.

By the end, everybody has gone insane from the art and the stress and natural inclination to madness. If you like books like that, then you will like "The Cheese Monkeys" (I did, a lot). My only criticism is that even though the book is set in the late 1950s, the dialogue and characters seem more modern. The only reason I can think for setting it in the 50s is that a couple of scenes involve registering for classes by getting in long lines and signing up on pieces of paper (ha! the absurdity); also, the students have to hitchhike for a class assignment at one point, which would be impossible now. Kidd probably should have set the book in the 1980s or early 1990s (did people hitchhike then? I'm so young.)

ETA: There's a sequel!
EATA: And it was really bad! ( )

I have to say this book was outstanding. It's a recollection of the narrator's first year at art school. It is NOT Hollywood and took some very interesting and unforseen turns. The story is not predictable and I would highly recommend it. ( )

funny, a bit sophmoric ( )